Alberta should set standards for addiction treatment centres, judge says in fatality report

An Alberta judge is recommending the provincial government set standards for governing residential medical detoxification and addiction treatment programs after she examined the death of a 25-year-old man at a rural recovery centre.

On the morning of Aug. 19, 2021, Joshua Corbiere was found unresponsive in his room at the Thorpe Recovery Centre, in the hamlet of Blackfoot, about 240 kilometres east of Edmonton.

He had been admitted to the centre's medically supported detox program at 12:40 p.m. the day before. 

Corbiere's death was determined to be accidental, caused by the effects of the synthetic opioid buprenorphine, a medication used to treat pain and opioid addiction, with obesity as a contributing cause.

Toxicology testing showed Corbiere, who had a substance use disorder, also had the antidepressant alprazolam (sold under the Xanax brand name and others) in his system.

The death prompted a series of changes at the Thorpe Recovery Centre. It closed its detox unit, was ordered to work with consultants to improve operations and came under new leadership.

Derek Keller, the centre's new CEO, said the organization has learned from what happened and strengthened policies and procedures.

A fatality inquiry into Corbiere's death was held over five days in Edmonton in February and March of this year.

In her May 24 fatality inquiry report, Justice Lisa Tchir with the Alberta Court of Justice recommended the province develop rules or standards, including best-practices benchmarks that could be enforced by compliance officers, for medical detoxification and addiction treatment.

"I would hope that those recommendations are taken very, very seriously so that families don't go through the hell that we are going through," Ray Corbiere, Joshua's father, told CBC News in an interview this week.

Ray Corbiere, who attended the inquiry along with Joshua's mother and reviewed the judge's report, said his son's death turned his life upside down.

"A part of my heart's been torn out and I miss him every single day," he said. 

Joshua had been a rambunctious and loving child. He protected his siblings and loved to camp, fish and play football. But he became involved with people who took him away from those pursuits and by his mid-20s, he could not live on his own and was dependent on others, his father said. 

Corbiere said Joshua was primarily living with him in Edmonton in 2021 and that the family did their best to help him.